>>I'm Nicole Lee, Associate Editor for CNET.com and this is a first look at the LG Fathom for Verizon Wireless. It is a Windows Mobile 6.5.3 device here. On the front here is a nice 3.2-inch resistive touch screen. Underneath that you do get the three physical keys for the Talk key, the Menu key as well as the End key. On the back here is the 3.2-megapixel camera right here. Also, on the back of the phone is a stylist.
Slide the phone open to the side until you get a full QWERTY keyboard, very nice and roomy as you can see here. Nice four row keyboard. You get the dedicated number key as well a the navigation toggle on the side here. Overall, the keyboard is very roomy. The keys are raised above the surface for easy texting and dialing. The LG Fathom's touch screen is actually a resistive touch screen so it's not quite as smooth and responsive as a capacitive display but it was good enough for us. The Fathom also has an accelerometer a proximity sensor as well as a luminosity sensor to adjust the screen's brightness according to the surroundings. Also, on the front of the phone is a gesture shortcut interface that lets you draw specific letters that will correspond to specific applications. For example, if you draw the letter "I" you'll go to Internet Explorer.
Since the LG Fathom is a Windows Mobile 6.5.3 phone, you get all of the typical Windows Mobile features. They include the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite using Outlook syncing with all of your exchange e-mail and contacts. You also get Windows Media Player as well as the aforementioned 3.2 megapixel camera and camcorder. The LG Fathom is a dual mode CDMA/GSM phone. That means you can use Verizon's CDMA network while in the states but abroad you can use a SIM card for quad-band GSM network access.
Other features of the phone include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS with VZ Navigator as well as VZ Navigator Global when you're abroad and the phone also has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor which makes it very speedy overall. However, the accelerometer can be a little bit slow. The LG Fathom is available for around $150 with a two-year service agreement with Verizon Wireless. I'm Nicole Lee, this has been a first look at the LG Fathom.
